Homework: Ethics & Enterprise

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this homework, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:

I. Competency I: Evaluate the parameters for ethical decision making in 21st century multi-cultural business environments.

1. Analyze an ethical dilemma that needs to be addressed.

2. Describe how a specific ethical dilemma corresponds with larger issues on a regional, national, or global level.

II. Competency II: Evaluate organizational policy within the framework of ethical standards.

1. Analyze the different methods for resolving the ethical dilemma.

2. Recommend an appropriate method to address the ethical dilemma.

III. Competency III: Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.

1. Write in a well-organized and concise manner that adheres to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Company Ethical Issue Identification

Overview

As we have seen in our readings, ethical dilemmas within companies can have various forms, such as gender inequality (paying a man more than a woman for the same work), embezzling, privacy breaches, and inappropriate use of social media, just to name a few. In this homework, you should consider a suitable company-wide ethical dilemma and discuss why you believe it is a problem and how you would remedy the dilemma. This exercise provides the opportunity for reflecting on ethical issues in the workplace and helps you to better understand their impact and how fixing the issue can benefit everyone.

Instructions

You will first need to identify a current or potential ethical dilemma in a company. This could be a company where you are now employed, a former employer, a friend`s company, or another company that had an ethical dilemma that you may have read about in the news. The issue should also be something that needs to be addressed with an organizational policy inside the company, such as harassment, discrimination, embezzlement, or fraud. In other words, you believe that a policy change would be better than other courses of action (such as disciplinary action toward an individual employee, or external action by the government or a nonprofit) to remedy the issue. You do not have to create a policy at this time, but you just need to explain why implementing a policy would be the right choice to address the situation or issue.

For example, a company may choose to videotape the office and read employee e-mails, so what`s the big deal? The conflict in this example could be that employees feel these practices are a violation of privacy and they feel entitled to a certain level of privacy. However, company owners and stakeholders defend these practices on the premise that they are ensuring employees are remaining productive and getting their work done.

Follow these steps to complete your homework. For all of these steps, make sure you provide examples and information from credible sources to support your writing and claims:

I. Step I: Analyze an ethical dilemma that needs to be addressed.

1. Describe the current ethical dilemma and how it affects various stakeholders.

2. Explain how the ethical dilemma warrants a company to take the time to address it.

3. Explain the implications of not addressing the ethical issue.

II. Step II: Analyze the different methods for resolving the ethical dilemma.

1. Describe the different ethical methods that are available to be used.

2. Explain how these methods can be applied to resolve the ethical dilemma.

3. Explain the ramifications and consequences of not addressing the ethical dilemma.

III. Step III: Recommend an appropriate method to address the ethical dilemma.

1. Explain how the organization can fix and address the dilemma.

2. Explain why you think your recommendations are appropriate and the right approach to addressing the specific dilemma.

IV. Step IV: Describe how a specific ethical dilemma corresponds with larger issues on a regional, national, or global level.

1. Discuss how this specific dilemma could impact policies and regulations on a larger scale.

2. Incorporate the ramifications and consequences (discussed in Step 2) with your description of how the ethical dilemma could impact all levels